Sariputta said, "Heaven has stopped in this room, how long has it been? ”

After receiving the training of the Celestial Maiden, Sariputta changed the subject, and he asked the Celestial Maiden how long it had been since she had been in Vimala's room.

He replied, "I will stop in this room as if I had been liberated in old age." ”

This is the Zen answer.

Seniors are people who are old and virtuous, which is the meaning of old-timers.

We must know that although Sariputta took refuge in the Buddha, he was older than the Buddha, and when the Buddha was born at the age of thirty-two to preach the Dharma, Sariputta was already fifty or sixty years old.

He had long since become a monk and worked as a teacher outside the home, and in India he was called Shaman, a common term for monks who had left home.

Buddhist monks are called bhikkhus, which were originally not mixed, but later translated into Chinese did not distinguish them.

After Sariputta took refuge in the Buddha, he brought his disciples with him. The same is true of Venerable Kasa and Venerable Muren.

These are rarely mentioned in the scriptures, but they are detailed in the Vinaya section.

The Celestial Maiden hereby honored Sariputta as a senior, and Sariputta asked her how long she had been here, and she replied that she was the same age as your predecessors who attained enlightenment.

Is Sariputta liberated? It still seems to be a problem in this scripture.

The Celestial Maiden replied very cleverly, how long have you been enlightened, how long have I been here.

Sariputta said, "How long has it been? ”

Sariputta asked again, "Then you have been here for a long time, Heavenly Maiden!"

Heaven said: "How long is the liberation of the elderly?" ”

The Heavenly Maiden shaved him again, may I ask the seniors for a long time, right?

Sariputta was silent.

Sariputta couldn't go on.

Tian said: "How to be old, wise and silent? ”

The Celestial Maiden almost didn't shave her eyebrows, and asked Sariputta, "The predecessors were people with great wisdom, why didn't they speak?"

He replied, "The liberated one has nothing to say, so I don't know what to do." ”

This sentence shows that Sariputta was only liberated in "reason", and liberation in "matter" was not achieved at least at that time.

Why?

This is difficult to see from the scriptures, and only after studying the precepts did I know that although Sariputta was enlightened, he was not in good health in his old age, and this became a problem.

People who study Buddhism in China don't pay much attention to the scriptures, but delve into the precepts, because they are very practical.

Sariputta's reply is that a person who has attained the Tao is "a person who has attained the Tao of the Tao and his mind is destroyed" and has nothing to say, and the Buddha said "not to speak", so he has nothing to say.

This idiom of "not knowing what to do" is also derived from the Vimala Sutra, which is also a famous sentence in Chinese Buddhist literature written by Master Kumarosh, and has now become a curse word, referring to the fact that people have no center in their speech and do not know what they are talking about.

Heaven said: "Words and words are liberating." ”

The Celestial Maiden's response was just the opposite of Sariputta's concept.

Is it liberating without speaking?

Talking is also a relief! Further, whether to say it or not to say it is liberation, why did it fall aside?

The person who fell to the side, in the opinion of the Zen patriarch, was a "bearer man", walking with a board on his back, only seeing the emptiness, not seeing the existence.

Sariputta's reply made a logical error, and he was immediately caught by the Celestial Maiden.

"Words" are "words", and the thoughts in the heart are expressed through the mouth, which is actually the same thing as thoughts, and if they are expressed in literature, they are called words.

So what?

The liberated one is not inside, not outside, not in two.

The text is neither inside nor outside, nor in the other.

It is the Sariputta, who is not separated from the text to say liberation.

The goddess asked and answered herself, and she was really relieved that she was neither inside, nor outside, nor in the middle.

When the mind is enlightened, where is the heart?

Not within, not outside, not in the middle, nowhere and everywhere.

In the same way, the text is not inside, not outside, not in the middle.

For example, if you want to express your thoughts for a letter, when it is written in black and white, is this text you?

It's not you, it's words, it's not about you.

You say irrelevant, I read your letter, your feelings and your thoughts are on paper, I can't say without you.

But the words are empty with you, and when the letter is finished, although there are traces of words, your thoughts are empty, aren't they?

So, Sariputta, don't fall aside and think that you are wrong to speak.

Speaking is liberation, words are empty, the past mind is unattainable, the present mind is unattainable, and the future mind is unattainable.

This sentence is said to be gone now, don't let you empty it.

If you want to empty it, it's delusional.

So what?

All dharmas are the state of liberation.

What is the reason?

All the worldly Dharma is liberating at the moment, and if you want to work hard to seek liberation, then you will be in the picture, and it will not be considered liberation.

The above paragraph explains liberation, which is very important, it is the essence of everything, whether you work hard to practice tantra or manifest teachings, you remember that all the dharmas are liberation phases.

Sariputta said: No longer take renunciation and anger as liberation?

The students who have become monks should pay more attention to the fact that after the Buddha's Nirvana, the Buddha's disciples take the precepts as their teachers.

There are several kinds of vows, such as bhikshu and bhikshuni vows, which are regular, called pratimoksha vows.

So what is the difference between the four-point law, the five-point law, and the ten-point recitation law used in Chinese Buddhism?

This is the fact that the disciples of the Buddha later divided into sects, each with different views on the precepts.

Contemporary Vinaya has established that the Chinese bhikshu and bhikshuni ordination is based on the four divisions.